Editing Benton County, Arkansas (section)

==Government & Politics==
===Government===
The county government is a constitutional body granted specific powers by the [[Constitution of Arkansas]] and the [[Arkansas Code]]. The quorum court is the legislative branch of the county government and controls all spending and revenue collection. Representatives are called ''justices of the peace'' and are elected from county districts every even-numbered year. The number of districts in a county vary from nine to fifteen, and district boundaries are drawn by the county election commission. The Benton County Quorum Court has fifteen members. Presiding over quorum court meetings is the ''county judge'', who serves as the [[chief operating officer]] of the county. The county judge is elected at-large and does not vote in quorum court business, although capable of vetoing quorum court decisions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quorum Courts |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/quorum-courts-6348/ |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Office of County Judge |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/office-of-county-judge-5720/ |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+Benton County, Arkansas Elected countywide officials<ref>{{Cite web |title=Elected Officials |url=https://bentoncountyar.gov/county-judge/elected-officials/ |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=County Judge |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Benton {{!}} Association of Arkansas Counties |url=https://www.arcounties.org/counties/benton/ |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=www.arcounties.org}}</ref><ref>https://www.arcounties.org/site/assets/files/6033/november_races.pdf</ref>
! Position
! Officeholder
! Party
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[County judge|County Judge]]
| Barry Moehring
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Municipal clerk|County Clerk]]
| Betsy Harrell
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Court clerk|Circuit Clerk]]
| Brenda DeShields
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Sheriff]]
| Shawn Holloway
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Treasurer]]
| Deanna Ratcliffe
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Tax collector|Collector]]
| Gloria Peterson
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Tax assessment|Assessor]]
| Roderick Grieve
| Republican
|- style="background-color:#F48882;
| [[Coroner]]
| Daniel Oxford
| Republican
|}
The composition of the Quorum Court following the 2024 elections is 15 Republicans. Justices of the Peace (members) of the Quorum Court following the elections are:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://bentoncountyar.gov/justices-peace/ |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=Justices of the Peace |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Benton County, Arkansas, elections, 2024 |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Benton_County,_Arkansas,_elections,_2024 |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=Ballotpedia |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Election Night Reporting |url=https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/AR/Benton/122507/web.345435/#/summary?v=356412/ |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=results.enr.clarityelections.com |language=en}}</ref>

* District 1: Jeff Dunn (R) of Rogers
* District 2: Ken Farmer (R) of Rogers
* District 3: Richard McKeehan (R) of Rogers
* District 4: Mike Miller (R) of Rogers
* District 5: Carrie Perrien Smith (R) of Rogers
* District 6: Brian Armas
* District 7: Joseph Bollinger (R) of Bella Vista
* District 8: Joel Jones (R) of Bentonville
* District 9: Gregory Woodell (R) (''position now Vacant'')
* District 10: Danny McCrackin (R) of Bella Vista
* District 11: Dustin Todd (R) of Bentonville
* District 12: John Rissler (R) of Siloam Springs
* District 13: Kurt S. Moore (R) of Siloam Springs
* District 14: Bethany Rosenbaum (R) of Lowell
* District 15: Joel Edwards (R) of Centerton

Additionally, the townships of Benton County are entitled to elect their own respective constables, as set forth by the [[Constitution of Arkansas]]. Constables are largely of historical significance as they were used to keep the peace in rural areas when travel was more difficult.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is a Constable? |url=https://www.uaex.uada.edu/business-communities/ced-blog/posts/2022/may/what-is-a-constable.aspx |access-date=April 18, 2025 |website=What is a Constable? |language=en}}</ref> The township constables as of the 2024 elections are:<ref name=":0" />

* District 1: James Gibson (R)
* District 2: Keith Brummett (R)
* District 3: Stephen Rosser (R)
* District 4: Gordon L. Fisher (R)
* District 5: Steven Walls (R)

===Politics===
As is typical of the Ozarks and the [[Bible Belt]], Benton County is strongly Republican. It was one of the first counties in Arkansas to break from the Democratic [[Solid South]], supporting Republicans [[Herbert Hoover]] in 1928 and [[Thomas E. Dewey]] in 1944. It has not been carried by a Democratic presidential nominee since [[Harry S. Truman]] in 1948.<ref name="How">Sullivan, Robert David; [http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/how-red-and-blue-map-evolved-over-past-century ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’]; ''America Magazine'' in ''The National Catholic Review''; June 29, 2016</ref> Along with nearby [[Sebastian County, Arkansas|Sebastian County]], it was one of the few counties in Arkansas to resist the appeal of Southern Democratic "[[favorite son]]s" [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], [[Jimmy Carter]], and Arkansas governor [[Bill Clinton]],{{efn|Benton County was one of few counties to have voted for Clinton during his gubernatorial campaigns despite him losing it during both his presidential runs. He won the county in all of his successful gubernatorial runs except for [[1982 Arkansas gubernatorial election|1982]] and [[1984 Arkansas gubernatorial election|1984]].}} while also voting for Republican [[Richard Nixon]] in 1968 as [[George Wallace]] won Arkansas on the pro-segregation [[American Independent Party]] ticket. Carter, in 1976, remains the last Democrat to win even forty percent of the county's vote.

In Benton County, voters have supported the GOP in the last nineteen presidential elections.

{{PresHead|place=Benton County, Arkansas|source=<ref name="DL">{{cite web|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|79,907|45,231|3,457|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|73,965|42,249|3,698|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|60,871|28,005|7,948|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|54,646|22,636|1,975|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|51,124|23,331|1,618|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|46,571|20,756|794|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|34,838|17,277|1,531|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|23,748|17,205|4,815|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|21,126|15,774|6,379|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|24,295|9,399|416|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|24,296|7,306|408|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|18,830|9,231|1,379|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|12,670|11,289|61|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|14,621|4,083|74|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|8,104|4,088|4,036|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|5,977|5,655|30|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|7,832|3,619|139|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|6,500|3,744|61|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|7,916|3,558|26|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|2,911|3,281|321|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|3,305|2,861|9|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|1,962|2,442|69|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|1,672|2,418|24|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|1,275|3,775|148|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|3,248|2,348|73|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|1,694|2,313|566|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|1,916|2,838|116|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|1,293|3,106|0|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|541|2,353|956|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|1,527|3,067|212|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|1,202|1,963|261|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|1,087|2,980|56|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|685|3,548|34|Arkansas}}
{{PresFoot|1892|Democratic|1,212|2,587|339|Arkansas}}